OPEN

Neuropsychopharmacology (2016) 41, 26382646

Official journal of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
www.neuropsychopharmacology.org

LSD Acutely Impairs Fear Recognition and Enhances Emotional

Empathy and Sociality







































Patrick C Dolder1, Yasmin Schmid1, Felix Mller2, Stefan Borgwardt2 and Matthias E Liechti*,1
1

Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine and Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel,
Basel, Switzerland; 2Department of Psychiatry (UPK), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is used recreationally and has been evaluated as an adjunct to psychotherapy to treat anxiety in patients
with life-threatening illness. LSD is well-known to induce perceptual alterations, but unknown is whether LSD alters emotional processing
in ways that can support psychotherapy. We investigated the acute effects of LSD on emotional processing using the Face Emotion
Recognition Task (FERT) and Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). The effects of LSD on social behavior were tested using the Social Value
Orientation (SVO) test. Two similar placebo-controlled, double-blind, random-order, crossover studies were conducted using 100 g LSD
in 24 subjects and 200 g LSD in 16 subjects. All of the subjects were healthy and mostly hallucinogen-naive 25- to 65-year-old volunteers
(20 men, 20 women). LSD produced feelings of happiness, trust, closeness to others, enhanced explicit and implicit emotional empathy on
the MET, and impaired the recognition of sad and fearful faces on the FERT. LSD enhanced the participants desire to be with other people
and increased their prosocial behavior on the SVO test. These effects of LSD on emotion processing and sociality may be useful for
LSD-assisted psychotherapy.
Neuropsychopharmacology (2016) 41, 26382646; doi:10.1038/npp.2016.82; published online 22 June 2016

INTRODUCTION
The classic serotonergic psychedelic/hallucinogen lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD) was widely studied in humans in
the 1950s to 1970s. However, little to no clinical research on
LSD has been conducted since then (Nichols, 2016; Passie
et al, 2008). Today, LSD is again the focus of clinical
investigations, including experimental studies in healthy
subjects (Carhart-Harris et al, 2016,2015; Dolder et al, 2015b;
Schmid et al, 2015; Strajhar et al, 2016), and clinical trials that
evaluate LSD-assisted psychotherapy (Gasser et al, 2014).
LSD that was administered only a few times decreased
anxiety and increased quality of life over a period of
12 months in patients with anxiety associated with terminal
illness (Gasser et al, 2015). The acute LSD experiences were
hypothesized to lead to a restructuring of the person's
emotional trust and situational understanding (Gasser
et al, 2015). Similar to LSD, the serotonergic hallucinogen
psilocybin and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT))
releaser 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA;
ecstasy) have been used to facilitate psychotherapy in
clinical trials (Grob et al, 2011; Mithoefer et al, 2010;
Oehen et al, 2013). Psilocybin reduced anxiety at 3 months
*Correspondence: Professor ME Liechti, Department of Biomedicine
and Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology
and Toxicology, University Hospital Basel, Hebelstrasse 2, Basel CH-4031,
Switzerland, Tel: +41 61 328 68 68, Fax: +41 61 265 45 60,
E-mail: matthias.liechti@usb.ch
Received 4 March 2016; revised 26 April 2016; accepted 18 May 2016;
accepted article preview online 1 June 2016

and additionally improved mood at 6 months after treatment

in patients with advanced-stage cancer (Grob et al, 2011).
Additionally, psilocybin was recently studied as a treatment
for tobacco (Johnson et al, 2014) and alcohol (Bogenschutz
et al, 2015) dependence. MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
reduced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder at
2 months (Mithoefer et al, 2010), and the benefits of MDMA
were reportedly sustained for several years (Mithoefer et al,
2013). These first findings from modern clinical studies with
psychedelics and MDMA should be confirmed in larger
trials. Exploring the mechanisms that may contribute to
these beneficial and lasting effects after only a few
administrations of the substances is also important.
Studies that use psychedelics and MDMA in healthy
subjects are well suited to assess the mechanism of action of
these substances. Both LSD and psilocybin appear to produce
effects that last beyond the acute drug response in both
patients and healthy subjects. Specifically, LSD increased
optimism and trait openness at 2 weeks (Carhart-Harris et al,
2016), and psilocybin produced positive changes in attitudes,
mood, and behavior at 2 (Griffiths et al, 2006) and 14 months
(Griffiths et al, 2011) after administration. Psilocybin
increased personality trait openness in participants who
had mystical experiences during their psilocybin session
(MacLean et al, 2011). Therefore, some of the lasting
beneficial effects appear to be associated with an acute
psychedelic response, including a peak or mystical
experience (Carhart-Harris et al, 2016; MacLean et al, 2011).
Both LSD and psilocybin are 5-HT2A receptor agonists,
and their psychedelic effects are mediated by 5-HT2A

LSD and emotion processing

PC Dolder et al

2639

receptor stimulation (Vollenweider et al, 1998). The longterm effects of LSD and psilocybin may be related to their
psychedelic and 5-HT2A receptor activation properties. In
contrast to the psychedelics LSD and psilocybin, MDMA
is considered an empathogen (entactogen) that mainly
enhances positive feelings, empathy, and prosociality
(Hysek et al, 2014a; Kirkpatrick et al, 2014) while having
few hallucinogen-like effects. Additionally, MDMA has been
shown to positively alter emotion processing (Bedi et al,
2010; Hysek et al, 2012,2014a; Kirkpatrick et al, 2012,2014;
Schmid et al, 2014). These acute effects of MDMA on
emotion processing and social behavior may be beneficial
during psychotherapy in the absence of a full psychedelic
peak experience. LSD also produced acute MDMA-like
subjective effects, including greater well-being, happiness,
closeness to others, openness, and trust (Schmid et al, 2015).
Thus, LSD and MDMA may have common effects on the
processing of emotional information with relevance to their
positive acute and possibly long-term effects during
psychotherapy. However, the effects of LSD in tests of
emotion processing are unknown. Therefore, the present
study investigated the acute effects of LSD using the Face
Emotion Recognition Task (FERT) and Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). The effects of LSD on social behavior
were also evaluated using the Social Value Orientation (SVO)
test. Additionally, we assessed the subjective mood effects of
LSD using Visual Analog Scales (VASs) and the Adjective
Mood Rating Scale (AMRS), vital signs, and adverse effects.
We hypothesized that LSD would impair the recognition of
negative emotions on the FERT and enhance emotional
empathy on the MET and prosociality on the SVO test.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Design
We pooled data from two similar studies using double-blind,
placebo-controlled, crossover designs with two experimental
test sessions (LSD and placebo) in a balanced order. Study 1
used a dose of 100 g LSD and placebo in 24 subjects. Study 2
used 200 g LSD or placebo in 16 subjects. The washout
periods between sessions were at least 7 days. The studies
were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of
Helsinki and approved by the local ethics committee. The
administration of LSD to healthy subjects was authorized by
the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health, Bern, Switzerland.
All of the subjects provided written consent before
participating in either of the studies, and they were paid
for their participation. The studies were registered at
ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02308969, NCT01878942). The subjective, endocrine, and pharmacokinetic effects of LSD in
Study 2 were previously reported (Dolder et al, 2015b;
Schmid et al, 2015; Strajhar et al, 2016).

Participants
Forty healthy participants were recruited from the University
of Basel campus via online advertisement. Twenty-four
subjects (12 men, 12 women; 33 11 years old (mean SD);
range, 2560 years) participated in Study 1, and 16 subjects
(8 men, 8 women; 29 6 years old; range, 2551 years)
participated in Study 2. The inclusion and exclusion criteria

were identical for both studies. Subjects younger than 25

years of age were excluded from participating in the study.
Additional exclusion criteria were age 465 years, pregnancy
(urine pregnancy test at screening and before each test
session), personal or family (first-degree relative) history of
major psychiatric disorders (assessed by the semistructured
clinical interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, 4th edition, Axis I disorders by the study
physician and an additional interview by a trained psychiatrist), use of medications that may interfere with the study
medication, chronic or acute physical illness (abnormal
physical exam, electrocardiogram, or hematological and
chemical blood analyses), tobacco smoking (410 cigarettes/day), lifetime prevalence of illicit drug use 410 times
(except for tetrahydrocannabinol), illicit drug use within the
last 2 months, and illicit drug use during the study
(determined by urine drug tests). The subjects were asked
to abstain from excessive alcohol consumption between test
sessions and particularly limit their use to one standard drink
on the day before the test sessions. Additionally, the
participants were not allowed to drink xanthine-containing
liquids after midnight before the study day. Eleven subjects
had used a hallucinogen including LSD (6 participants) one
to three times, and most of the subjects (29) were
hallucinogen-nave (Supplementary Table S1). We performed urine drug tests at screening and before each test
session, and no substances were detected during the study.

Study Procedures
Each study included a screening visit, a psychiatric interview,
two 25-h experimental sessions, and an end-of-study visit.
The experimental sessions were conducted in a quiet
standard hospital patient room. The participants were resting
in hospital beds except when going to the restroom. Only one
research subject and one investigator were present during
the experimental sessions. Participants could interact with
the investigator, rest quietly and/or listen to music via
headphones, but no other entertainment was provided. LSD
or placebo was administered at 0900 hours. The subjects
were never alone during the first 12 h after drug administration, and the investigator was in a room next to the subject
for up to 24 h while subjects were asleep (mostly from 0100
to 0800 hours). Because subjective responses to LSD are
pronounced and peak at 23 h and last up to 12 h (Passie
et al, 2008; Schmid et al, 2015), effects on emotion processing
and prosociality were assessed 5 and 7 h after the 100 and
200 g doses, respectively, when the subjective effects of LSD
amounted to approximately 50% of the peak responses
(Dolder et al, 2015b; Schmid et al, 2015).

Study Drug
LSD (D-LSD hydrate; Lipomed AG, Arlesheim, Switzerland)
was administered in single oral doses of 100 or 200 g. Both
doses are within the range of doses that are taken for
recreational purposes (Passie et al, 2008).

Measures
Facial Emotion Recognition Task. We used the FERT,
which is sensitive to the effects of other psychoactive
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LSD and emotion processing

PC Dolder et al

2640

substances, including serotonin and norepinephrine uptake

inhibitors (Harmer et al, 2004), MDMA (Bedi et al, 2010;
Hysek et al, 2014b; Kirkpatrick et al, 2014; Schmid et al,
2014), and methylphenidate (Hysek et al, 2014b; Schmid
et al, 2014). The task included 10 neutral faces and 160 faces
that expressed one of four basic emotions (ie, happiness,
sadness, anger, and fear), with pictures morphed between 0%
(neutral) and 100% in 10% steps. Two female and two male
pictures were used for each of the four emotions. The stimuli
were presented in random order for 500 ms and then were
replaced by the rating screen where participants had to
indicate the correct emotion. The outcome measure was
accuracy (proportion correct). The FERT was performed 5
and 7 h after the 100 and 200 g doses of LSD, respectively.

Multifaceted Empathy Test. The MET is a reliable and

valid task that assesses the cognitive and emotional aspects of
empathy (Dziobek et al, 2008). The MET has been shown to
be sensitive to oxytocin (Hurlemann et al, 2010), MDMA
(Hysek et al, 2014a; Kuypers et al, 2014; Schmid et al, 2014),
and psilocybin (Preller et al, 2015). The computer-assisted
test consisted of 40 photographs that showed people in
emotionally charged situations. To assess cognitive empathy,
the participants were required to infer the mental state of the
subject in each scene and indicate the correct mental state
from a list of four responses. Cognitive empathy was defined
as the percentage of correct responses relative to total
responses. To measure emotional empathy, the subjects were
asked to rate how much they were feeling for an individual in
each scene (ie, explicit emotional empathy) and how much
they were aroused by each scene (ie, implicit emotional
empathy) on a 19 point scale. The latter rating provides an
inherent additional assessment of emotional empathy, which
is considered to reduce the likelihood of socially desirable
answers. The three aspects of empathy were each tested with
20 stimuli with positive valence and 20 stimuli with negative
valence, resulting in a total of 120 trials. The MET was
performed 5 h and 30 min after the 100 g LSD dose and 7 h
and 30 min after the 200 g LSD, respectively.
SVO test. We used the paper version of the validated SVO
test to assess social behavior (Murphy et al, 2011). The SVO
measure was previously shown to be sensitive to MDMA
(Hysek et al, 2014a). In this economic resource allocation
task, prosociality is defined as behavior that maximizes the
sum of resources for the self and others and minimizes the
difference between the two. The test consists of six primary
and nine secondary SVO slider items with a resource
allocation choice over a defined continuum of joint payoffs
(Murphy et al, 2011). The participants were instructed to
choose a resource allocation that defined their most
preferred joint distribution between themselves and another
person. The allocated funds had real value, and four
randomly selected subjects received the funds they earned.
Mean allocations for the self and the other were calculated
(Hysek et al, 2014a; Murphy et al, 2011), and the inverse
tangent of the ratio of these two means produced an angle
that indicated the participants SVO index. A smaller SVO
angle indicates more individualistic or competitive behavior,
and a larger SVO angle indicates more prosocial or even
Neuropsychopharmacology

altruistic behavior. The SVO was performed 6 and 8 h after

the 100 and 200 g doses of LSD, respectively.

Subjective mood. The VASs and the AMRS (Janke and

Debus, 1978) were repeatedly used to assess subjective effects
including aspects of empathy and sociality (Hysek et al,
2014a; Schmid et al, 2015) (Supplementary Material and
Methods).
Vital signs and adverse effects. Blood pressure, heart rate,
body temperature, pupil diameter, and adverse effects were
measured as described in the Supplementary Material and
Methods.
Drug concentrations. Blood samples for the analysis of
plasma LSD levels were collected in lithium heparin tubes
after completing the social cognitive tests 6 and 8 h after
administration of the 100 and 200 g doses of LSD or
placebo, respectively. Plasma LSD concentrations were
determined using liquid-chromatography tandem mass
spectrometry (Dolder et al, 2015a).
Statistical Analyses
All of the data were analyzed using repeated measures
analysis of variance (ANOVA), with drug (LSD vs placebo)
as the within-subjects factor and dose (100 vs 200 g) as the
between-subjects factor, followed by the Tukeys post hoc test
based on significant main effects or interactions. Repeated
subjective measures were expressed as peak effects prior to
the ANOVAs. Additionally, differences at individual time
points were also compared using paired t-tests. Modulatory
effects by sex or previous hallucinogen use were excluded by
adding sex or substance use as an additional factor to the
ANOVAs. Sex or previous substance use did not moderate
outcome measures.

RESULTS
Facial Emotion Recognition
The effects of LSD on the FERT are shown in Figure 1. Data
were missing from 2 of the 24 subjects in the 100 g LSD
dose group because of technical problems. LSD impaired the
recognition of fearful faces (main effect of drug: F1,36 = 20.71,
po0.001), with no drug dose interaction. Impairments
were found in both the 100 and 200 g dose groups
compared with placebo (po0.01 and po0.05, respectively).
A significant main effect of drug (F1,36 = 7.36, p = 0.01)
indicated that LSD also impaired the recognition of sad faces,
but post hoc comparisons of the two dose groups with
placebo did not reach significance. No significant effects of
LSD on the decoding of neutral, happy, or angry facial
expressions were found.

Empathy
The effects of LSD on explicit emotional and cognitive
empathy are shown in Figure 2. Data were missing from 2 of
the 24 subjects in the 100 g LSD dose group because of
technical problems. There were significant main effects of
drug on explicit and implicit emotional empathy ratings

LSD and emotion processing

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Figure 1 Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) impaired fear recognition on

the Face Emotion Recognition Task . LSD also impaired the decoding of sad
faces (significant main effect of drug), but the effects did not reach statistical
significance in the individual dose groups. The data are expressed as
mean SEM in 22 and 16 subjects in the 100 and 200 g LSD dose groups,
respectively. *po0.05, **po0.01, significant difference from placebo.

Figure 2 Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) increased emotional empathy

and decreased cognitive empathy on the Multifaceted Empathy Test. The
data are expressed as mean SEM in 22 and 16 subjects in the 100 and
200 g LSD dose groups, respectively. *po0.05, **po0.01, significant
difference from placebo.

(F1,36 = 14.05, po0.001 and F1,36 = 6.71, p = 0.01, respectively), indicating that LSD increased both aspects of
emotional empathy. The post hoc tests showed that the
200 g dose but not the 100 g dose of LSD produced a
significant effect on explicit (po0.01) and implicit (p = 0.01)
empathy scores compared with placebo. The valence-specific
analysis showed that LSD significantly increased explicit and
implicit emotional empathy scores for positive emotional
stimuli ( F1,36 = 24.32, po0.001 and F1,36 = 10.47, po0.01,
respectively) but there were only trend effects for negative
emotional stimuli (F1,36 = 3.29, p = 0.08 and F1,36 = 2.82,
p = 0.1, respectively). LSD decreased cognitive empathy,
reflected by a significant main effect of drug (F1,36 = 16.87,
po0.001). The post hoc tests showed that this effect was
significant for both the 100 and 200 g doses compared with
the respective placebo conditions (both po0.05).

peak effects at the higher compared with the lower dose.

Ratings of happy were similarly increased by both doses.
LSD produced small dose-dependent increases in bad drug
effect and fear (Figure 3, Table 1). On the AMRS, LSD
significantly increased ratings of well-being, emotional
excitation, inactivity, introversion, and dreaminess
compared with placebo (Figure 4 and Table 1). There was
a significant main effect of LSD on fear but no significant
effects in the individual studies.

Vital Signs and Adverse Effects

A significant effect of drug was found on the SVO angle

(F1,38 = 4.31, po0.05), indicating that LSD increased prosociality. The post hoc tests showed that this effect did not
reach significance in the individual LSD dose groups and was
only evident in the larger total study sample.

Peak values and statistics are shown in Table 1. Compared

with placebo, LSD increased blood pressure, heart rate, and
body temperature as well as pupil size in the dark and after a
light stimulus (Table 1). These effects were similar for both
doses (no drug dose interaction). Compared with placebo,
both doses of LSD increased the total acute (010 h) adverse
effects. Only the high dose increased the total subacute
(1024 h) adverse effects. Adverse effects 2472 h were
slightly increased in the total sample but not in the individual
studies (Table 1). The frequently reported adverse effects are
presented in Supplementary Table S2. There were no severe
adverse events.

Subjective Mood Effects

Plasma Drug Levels and Correlations Between Effects

Subjective effects on the VASs are shown in Figure 3, and

maximal values are presented in Table 1. LSD increased
maximal VAS rating scores, including those reflecting
empathy and prosociality such as feeling close to others,
open, trust, and I want to be with others, with greater

Plasma concentrations of LSD were 0.7 0.3 ng/ml (mean SD)

6 h after administration of the 100 g dose and 1.3 0.6 ng/ml
8 h after administration of the 200 g dose. These time points of
blood sample collection were immediately after the social
cognitive tests performed in the respective dose groups. Plasma

Social Value Orientation

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LSD and emotion processing

PC Dolder et al

2642

Figure 3 Subjective effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) over time on the Visual Analog Scales (VASs). LSD or placebo was administered at t = 0. The
data are expressed as mean SEM in 24 and 16 subjects in the 100 and 200 g LSD dose groups, respectively. LSD significantly increased ratings on all VASs
with significant doseresponse effects, except for ratings of happy. The corresponding maximal effects and statistics are shown in Table 1. Emotion
recognition (Face Emotion Recognition Task), empathy (Multifaceted Empathy Test), and social value orientation (SVO) tests were conducted 56 and 78 h
after the administration of the 100 and 200 g LSD dose, respectively. +/*po0.05, ++/**po0.01, +++/***po0.001 for the 100/200 g LSD dose,
respectively, compared with placebo (T-tests).

LSD levels correlated with explicit emotional empathy scores on

the MET for positive (Spearman Rs = 0.37, po0.05, n = 38) but
not for negative emotional situations. Plasma levels of LSD
were not associated with FERT or SVO test measures.
Plasma levels of LSD were associated with LSD-induced ratings
of trust (Spearman Rs = 0.32, po0.05, n = 40). LSD-induced
VAS ratings for feelings of closeness and trust were associated
with greater explicit empathy for positive emotional stimuli
(Spearman Rs = 0.35, po0.05 and Rs = 0.47, po0.01, respectively, n = 38).

DISCUSSION
LSD positively altered the processing of emotional information by decreasing the recognition of fearful and sad faces
and enhancing emotional empathy and prosociality. We are
aware of no other published data on the acute effects of LSD
on emotion processing. However, MDMA produced very
similar effects to those of LSD in the present study. MDMA
reduced the recognition of sad and fearful faces but not
happy faces on the FERT (Bedi et al, 2010; Hysek et al,
2014b), increased explicit and implicit emotional empathy on
the MET (Hysek et al, 2014a; Kuypers et al, 2014) (mainly for
positive emotionally charged situations) (Hysek et al, 2014a;
Neuropsychopharmacology

Schmid et al, 2014), and increased prosociality on the SVO

test (Hysek et al, 2014a). LSD did not facilitate perception of
happiness in the FERT similar to MDMA (Bedi et al, 2010;
Hysek et al, 2014b), possibly because detection of positive
basic emotions is very accurate in healthy subjects and
difficult to enhance. Thus, the 5-HT2A receptor agonist LSD
and 5-HT releaser MDMA may produce overall similar
effects on the processing of emotional information. However,
in contrast to MDMA, LSD also impaired cognitive empathy
on the MET, and the higher dose also decreased the
recognition of neutral faces on the FERT, indicating
nonspecific performance effects. Similar to LSD, the
5-HT2A receptor agonist psilocybin decreased the recognition of negative facial expressions (Kometer et al, 2012) and
increased emotional empathy on the MET (Preller et al,
2015). Altogether, these findings indicate that LSD affects
emotion processing similarly to MDMA and psilocybin.
The marked acute psychedelic/hallucinogenic peak
response to LSD and psilocybin has been considered
relevant to their lasting effects (Carhart-Harris et al, 2016;
Griffiths et al, 2011). The present study showed that LSD has
dose-dependent subjective effects on empathogenic mood,
including feelings of closeness to others, wanting to be
with others, happiness, openness, and trust (Schmid
et al, 2015), in addition to more hallucinogen-specific

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PC Dolder et al

2643

Table 1 Values and Statistics for the Subjective and Cardiovascular Peak Effects
Placebo 100 g
(mean SE)

LSD 100 g
(mean SE)

Placebo 200 g
(mean SE)

LSD 200 g
(mean SE)

Drug

Drug Dose

F1,38 =

p=

F1,38 =

p=

1939

***

6.21

Subjective effects
Visual Analog Scales (VAS, %)
Any drug effect

0.9 0.6

87.5 3.3***

0.1 0.1

97.2 1.7***#

Good drug effect

0.9 0.6

85.2 3.4***

0.1 0.1

96.8 1.5***##

1661

***

7.66

**

Bad drug effect

0.0 0.0

17.3 3.6**

0.1 0.06

40.0 8.2***###

51.17

***

8.01

**

Fear

0.0 0.0

8.4 2.3

31.3 8.6***###

27.74

***

9.24

**

Happy

1.2 0.6

30 3.4***

5.0 2.0

39.1 4.2***

141.5

***

NS

Closeness to others

0.0 0.0

15.2 3.2***

4.3 1.8

32.3 4.7***###

61.68

***

5.38

Open

0.2 0.2

17.0 2.8***

3.9 1.5

41.0 3.6***###

128.9

***

18.4

***

Trust

0.0 0.0

22.0 4.1***

4.8 2.1

39.8 4.0***###

81.37

***

4.2

I want to be hugged

0.0 0.0

8.8 2.7

3.4 1.9

27.8 6.8***###

23.52

***

5.13

I want to hug someone

0.0 0.0

10.4 2.7*

27.6 6.1***##

41.21

***

9.13

**

0.06 0.1

1.4 3.3

I want to be alone

0.6 0.6

7.7 2.5

5.1 1.9

I want to be with other people

0.8 0.8

12.8 2.5**

10.8 4.2

0.0 0.6

2.5 1.0

17.6 5.6
42.8 5.5***###

9.93

**

0.76

NS

79.87

***

16.25

***

NS

Adjective Mood Rating Scale (AMRS, score)

Well-being
Emotional excitation
Inactivity

2.3 0.5**

0.3 0.3

2.6 0.7

9.0 1.1**

1.3 1.1

Extroversion

0.5 0.3

Introversion

0.4 0.1

Fear
Dreaminess

1.8 0.7

0.3 0.2

0.1 0.1
0.2 0.3

0.1 0.6
4.1 0.6***
0.9 0.3
6.9 0.7***

6.6 1.6*
4.7 1.0***##
10.6 2.7***

0.1 0.5

1.5 0.7

0.5 0.4

4.3 0.8***

0.4 0.3
0.8 0.5

1.3 1.0

11.49

**

1.11

53.5

***

4.77

30.82

***

1.05

NS

2.67

NS

0.77

NS

51.92

***

0.01

NS

9.51

**

0.72

NS

7.9 0.6***

160.2

***

0.11

NS

Vital signs
Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg)

129 2.0

142 2.1***

133 3.8

148 2.9***

63.8

***

0.13

NS

Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg)

76.9 1.5

85.7 1.7***

78.2 2.0

87.6 1.9***

68.8

***

0.08

NS

Heart rate (beats/min)

70.6 1.8

79.1 2.7**

72.8 2.6

86.9 4.29***

33.7

***

2.05

NS

0.5 0.1

0.8 0.1**

0.3 0.1

0.7 0.1**

23.74

***

0.22

NS

Pupil size (mm)

6.1 0.2

6.9 0.1***

6.5 0.2

7.2 0.1***

61.08

***

0.81

NS

Pupil size after light (mm)

4.3 0.2

5.2 0.2***

4.6 0.2

5.6 0.2***

89.61

***

0.02

NS

0.5 0.3

9.8 1.8***

0.1 0.6

NS

Body temperature (C)

List of complaints ( LC total score)

10.4 3.0***

38.37

***

Subacute adverse effects (1024 h)

0.2 0.3

0.4 0.2

0.4 0.4

3.7 1.4**

12.06

**

6.76

Subacute adverse effects (2472 h)

0.5 0.3

0.1 0.2

0.8 0.4

0.6 0.9

6.03

1.83

NS

Acute adverse effects (010 h)

Values are mean SEM of the peak or peak changes () from baseline in 40 subjects. Sixteen subjects participated in the high dose study (200 g) and 24 subjects in the
moderate dose study (100 g).
*for po0.05, **for po0.01, ***for po0.001 compared with placebo. # for po0.05, ## for po0.01, ### for po0.001 compared with LSD 100 g.

psychedelic peak effects. These acute subjective effects of

LSD and its effects on the emotion processing and behavioral
tests in the present study are very similar to those of the
prototypic empathogen MDMA. However, LSD induced
higher AMRS intro- than extroversion while MDMA
produced more extro- than introversion (Hysek et al,
2014a). Importantly, the subjective feelings of happiness,
trust, closeness to others, and desire to be with others at
the high dose of LSD were maintained up to 612 h, and the
effects of LSD on emotion processing and prosociality were

also observed late in time at 68 h after LSD administration

and after the peak response when a plateau phase was
reached. At that time, the subjects were also less overwhelmed by initially strong and mostly novel psychedelic
experiences, which may open a window for psychotherapeutic interventions. The emotional effects during the
later phase of the acute LSD response (610 h) are likely
beneficial to acutely facilitating the therapeutic alliance.
Future research should address the relative contributions of the psychedelic peak experience vs empathogenic
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LSD and emotion processing

PC Dolder et al

2644

Figure 4 Subjective effects on the Adjective Mood Rating Scale. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or placebo was administered at t = 0. The data are
expressed as mean SEM changes from baseline (1 h) in 24 and 16 subjects in the 100 and 200 g LSD dose groups, respectively. Emotion recognition
(Face Emotion Recognition Task), empathy (Multifaceted Empathy Test), and social value orientation (SVO) tests were conducted 56 and 78 h after the
administration of the 100 and 200 g LSD dose, respectively. The corresponding maximal effects and statistics are shown in Table 1. *po0.05, **po0.01,
***po0.001 compared with placebo (T-tests).

emotional effects of LSD to its potential therapeutic effects.

Additionally, it seems that only the higher 200 g dose of
LSD produced robust empathogenic effects. Furthermore,
the relevance of deficits in cognitive empathy for the
therapeutic process is unclear.
The present study also showed that LSD was well tolerated
in a controlled setting in healthy subjects. Adverse effects of
LSD mainly included acute dizziness, headache, and fatigue/
exhaustion lasting up to 72 h. Both doses of LSD produced
comparable moderate sympathomimetic effects including
elevated blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and
mydriasis.
The present study used two doses of LSD within a
clinically relevant dose range. In fact, the higher dose was
identical to both the amount and pharmaceutical formulation that were used in a clinical study in patients with anxiety
(Gasser et al, 2014) and continue to be used in patients in
Switzerland. Additionally, LSD was administered to subjects
across a relatively wide age range (2560 years). Importantly,
the subjects typically had no or very limited hallucinogen
experience, which is possibly similar to cases in which LSD is
used therapeutically in patients. In contrast, other contemporary studies used lower doses of LSD in subjects with
extensive prior substance use (Carhart-Harris et al,
2016,2015). However, in the present study, previous
hallucinogen use (13 times including LSD in six subjects)
did not alter the responses to LSD.
In the present study, the tests were performed approximately 3 h after the peak effects (Dolder et al, 2015b; Schmid
et al, 2015). At the time of the peak response of LSD, test
administration would not have been feasible because of the
Neuropsychopharmacology

strong alterations in wake consciousness and impairments in

concentration (Schmid et al, 2015). The participants needed
to adjust to the altered state of consciousness; therefore,
testing occurred after a plateau phase was reached. Nevertheless, at the time of testing, the subjective effects and plasma
concentrations of LSD were still at approximately 50% of the
peak responses and clearly effective in producing typical LSD
effects, providing a good time interval for conducting the
neurocognitive tasks (Carhart-Harris et al, 2016; Schmid et al,
2015). Additionally, the tests were performed later after the
high dose than after the low dose of LSD. However, at the
times of testing, plasma LSD concentrations were twice as
high after the 200 g dose compared with the 100 g dose, and
generating a dose/concentrationresponse effect was possible.
The study has limitations. First, the dose effects of LSD
were studied in different participants and not within-subject.
Second, we assessed only emotion recognition and no other
measures such as face muscle responses to emotions (Wardle
et al, 2014) and the stimuli were artificial (pictures) rather
than real people. With regard to the use of LSD in
psychotherapy, we only assessed empathic concern for
others but not whether the participants felt cared for or
understood by someone else (Wardle and de Wit, 2014). It is
possible that LSD affected attention and motivation and
thereby task performance. Thus, it will be important to
replicate and expand our findings using additional emotion
recognition tests (Wardle and de Wit, 2014), tests of
responses to emotions (Wardle and de Wit, 2014; Wardle
et al, 2014), and other measures of social interaction (Frye
et al, 2014).

LSD and emotion processing

PC Dolder et al

2645

In conclusion, LSD impaired emotion recognition of

negative emotions and enhanced emotional empathy,
particularly for positive emotional situations, and had
subjective and behaviorally tested prosocial effects. These
effects of LSD in healthy participants likely have translational
relevance to LSD-assisted psychotherapy in patients and can
be expected to reduce the perception of negative emotions
and facilitate the therapeutic alliance.

FUNDING AND DISCLOSURE

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science
Foundation (grant no. 320030_1449493 to MEL) and the
University of Basel (to FM). The authors declare no conflict
of interest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge the assistance of M Arends in text
editing. The studies were registered at ClinicalTrials.gov
(NCT02308969, NCT01878942).

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